Communication is an important factor in improvement programs. Communication pictures the goals and approach of an improvement program. It can motivate people to commit to change, by showing expected benefits and early results. But wrong or too much communication can also frustrate people, getting them to resist changing. Many improvement programs are run by technical persons, in a technical environment. Often communication is undervalued and underestimated, and perceived as difficult. It is something that people are inexperienced in, which makes them feel uncomfortable. But if they get started, and take some hurdles, they can get better in it. This presentation provides hands-on information, and hint & tips. This presentation will show how vital communication is for improvement programs. It supplies a set of tools and techniques to improve the visibility of targets and results, and will explain how this has been used to monitor and steer continuous improvement in an R&D organization. Views on continuous improvement from different stakeholders are included, to show their needs on communication.

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Continuous Improvement, make it visible!
Ben Linders
Operational Development & Quality
Ericsson R&D, The Netherlands
ben.linders@ericsson.com, +31 161 24 9885

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Quotes
Lee Iacocca (Ford Motors):
You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them
across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.
Larry King (TV Talk show host):
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day
will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must
do it by listening.
Chinese Proverb
There is no wave without wind.

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Ericsson, The Netherlands
• Market Unit Northern Europe & Main R&D
Design Center
• R&D: Intelligent Networks
– Strategic Product Management
– Product marketing & technical sales support
– Provisioning & total project management
– Development & maintenance
– Customization
– Supply & support
• +/- 1300 employees, of which +/- 350 in R&D

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Improve?
• Better, faster, cheaper
• Preventing problems iso solving
• To increase revenue
• New markets, products
• To compete in the market
• (New) organizational targets
• Everything changes, we will adapt ourselves
Improvement is necessary in all organizations

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Communication
Communication:
¾ Get commitment
¾ Change behavior
¾ Motivate people
• Which problem are we solving?
• What have we done already?
• How did we do it?
• What did it bring us?

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Past (1980-2000)
Early Days: Process establishment
• Processes part of the product
• Detailed instructions on every document
• Extensive training program
Corporate improvement programs
• CMM used to manage improvement
• Process Areas responsibles, strict follow up
• CMM level 3 in 1995, level 4 assessment in 1998
¾ Separate process organization
¾ Large investments in process creation & support

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Past: Improvement Communication
Large improvement programs:
• Management attention
• Communication is required
• Communication plan
• Budget, people
• People want to know (audience)
• Measurements
Communication part of improvement project:
“Relatively easy”

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Intermezzo (2001-2003)
Economical situation
• Cost reductions
• Focus on processes largely reduced
• Lay-offs, loss of process knowledge
• 2003: Back to profit!
¾ Focus on core business
¾ Essential improvements (Operational Excellence)
Communication part of restructuring

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Present (2004 onwards)
Process Disciplines Programs:
• Coordinated top-down
• Business Cases, improvement top 3, Scorecard driven
• Long term, major investment
Continuous Improvement:
• Gathered bottom up
• Audits, retrospectives, Root Cause Analysis, best practices
• Short term, quick wins
¾ Processes integrated in the line
¾ Time available for process work heavily reduced
¾ Effective and efficient communication needed

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Present: Improvement Communication
Diverse improvement:
• Management is a scarce resource
• Communication needs vary
• No structural communication plan
• Limited budget, people
• Resistance to change
• No standard measurement
Improvement communication is difficult!

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Tools for communication of improvements
Main “tools”:
• Presentations
• Intranet
• Agile tools
• Measurements
The next slides will show examples & experiences

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Presentations
• Kick off
– Business need, goals
– Approach, organization
– Expected results
• Progress
– Intermediate results & changes
• Wrap up & evaluation
– Did we reach our goal?
– Was it worth the effort?
¾ Large groups
¾ Create commitment
¾ Base for further
communication

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Example presentation (1)
Early Fault Detection project
Kick off presentation
• Need for the project
• Expected business result
• Deliverables
• Planning
• Way of Working

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Example presentation (2)
Leading Efficiency
Wrap up/evaluation
• Results?
• Project Goals realized?
• Handover
• Critical Success Factors
• Experiences

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Intranet
• Improvement project website
– Overview of improvements
– Newsletter
– Archive
• Results
– Balanced Scorecards
– Business Cases
• Processes, methods, tools
– Overview
– Detailed instructions, templates,
checklists, etc
¾ Supporting
¾ Promotion
¾ Do not expect that
everybody sees it!

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Example Intranet
Project Defect Model
• Short paragraphs
with main info
• Links to detailed info
& documents
• Newsletters
• Contact for more
information
Make it:
• Clear & Concise
• Up to date
• Printable

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Agile Communication
• Quick & Easy
• Relevant
• Access to information
• Examples
– Support Mailbox
– “Road show”
– Workshops
– WIKI
– Blogs

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Measurement of improvements
• Targets
– Assessments, Improvements
– Budgets, ROI
– Planned communication
• Steering
– Regular measurement
– On track?
– Results?
¾ Priority?
¾ Time/budget?
¾ Results?

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Example Measurement Improvement
• Assessments
• Improvements
• Details
Asse ssm e nts Done S D Tre nd 12 m onths
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Apr M ay Jun Jul A ug S ep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb M rt
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15 D ep 8
D ep 7
D ep 6
D ep 5
D ep 4
D ep 3
D ep 2
D ep 1
Unit
S D finis hed
R obus t
S tretch
Commit
S D Open
Improvements Done SD Trend
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mrt
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Dep8
Dep7
Dep6
Dep5
Dep4
Dep3
Dep2
Dep1
Unit
Clos ed6 Months
R obus t
S tretch
Commit
OpenSD
Kind of Impr., Result,
Total
Process
Definition
Process
Deployment
Tool
Deployment
Organization
Other
Value per department
Dep 1
Dep 2
Dep 3
Dep 4
Dep 5
Dep 6
Dep 7
Dep 8
Value
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1 2 3 4 5

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Conclusions
• Diverse set of communication tools needed
– Reaching all groups in the organization
– Time dispersed, different needs, backgrounds
• Communication tools support each other
– Presentations: Commitment, general information
– Intranet: Support, background, results
– Agile tools: Updates, interaction, feedback
– Measurements: Steering, decision taking, focus
• Plan for communication
– Time, people, opportunities
– Skills, tools

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Further reading
Papers:
– Make what’s counted count, in Better Software magazine march 2004. Ben Linders.
Books:
– Managing expectations. Naomi Karten.
– Getting things done when you are not in charge. Geoffrey Bellman.
Ben Linders, Ericsson R&D, The Netherlands
ben.linders@ericsson.com, +31 161 24 9885
Related Websites:
– Tantara links to SPi and QA: http://www.tantara.ab.ca/info.htm
– Software Engineering Institute: http://www.sei.cmu.edu
– SPI forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spi/